Tag Archive for: Social Media Marketing

5 Ways to Boost Your Brand Awareness and Grow Your Business in 2021

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Looking to increase your brand awareness and grow your small business in 2021? Utilize these 5 psychological factors and strategies to achieve just that. 

1. Social Influence

Today, around 80% of consumers’ purchasing decisions are influenced by their friends’ social media posts. On top of that, consumers are around 70% more likely to make a purchase based on a social media referral. So, being active on social media has a number of benefits for brands. It not only helps you increase your brand awareness, but also allows you to influence user perception. Consistently engaging with your target audience and positioning your brand how you want to be seen can deliver great results. 

2. Consistency and Transparency 

In the current climate, honesty is extremely important to consumers. Be transparent about your products and services and keep your promises. This means if something goes wrong, be upfront to your consumers about it. Odds are people will find out eventually, and it looks worse if you’ve attempted to hide it. Share information freely and be consistent with your branding to help build trust among your audience. 

3. Color 

Colors have a significant influence on customer perception and purchase decisions. In fact, research has shown that 90% of subconscious judgements about a product are based on color alone and 85% of shoppers consider color and the primary reason for making a purchase decision. You want to use colors that coincide with your brand personality and brand image. 

4. Customer Experience 

Almost 90% of consumers say they are willing to pay more for a great customer experience. As we discussed above, staying active on social media can increase brand awareness and also allow you to influence user perception. You can deliver value by sharing content that’s useful, builds brand authority and increases consumer trust. If a user has already had a positive experience with your brand on social, they’re much more likely to take that to their purchasing decision. 

Additionally, encourage your customers to share their experiences online. People trust people significantly more than brands themselves. If a user sees that someone else has had a great experience with you, they will remember that when it comes time to make their purchase decision. 

5. Visual Storytelling

Lastly, it’s essential to incorporate visual storytelling. Telling intriguing stories that align with personal and social identities of your target audience helps boost brand loyalty drastically. People stay loyal to brands who share the same values as they do. Not only that, but 75% of website visitors visit a site after watching a branded video. 

Final Thoughts 

There are a number of ways to boost brand awareness and grow your business, but these strategies are a good place to start. It’s important to note that both of these goals can take time organically, but can be sped up by being paired with paid ads.

If you need additional assistance in any area of digital marketing, we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of social media and digital marketing. Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. 

4 Steps to Create a Successful Paid Social Campaign

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With the holiday season upon us, eCommerce spend is set to hit new records. With people online shopping now more than ever, reaching out through social should be on the agenda for your brand. 

If you’re looking to refine your approach to paid social ads this season, here are 4 simple tips to create a winning campaign. 

Step 1: Define Your Goals

The first step to any winning campaign is defining your campaign goals, KPIs, parameters, plan and strategy. The easiest way to to do this is by creating a checklist with a variety of questions, such as: 

  • What is your campaign objective? 
  • Why does this matter? What’s your ultimate business goal? 
  • How will you measure success? 
  • What is your budget? 
  • Who is your target audience? 
  • How far through the funnel are they? 
  • What is your ideal audience reach? 
  • Which platforms best reach your target audience? 

Step 2: Design Ads 

When creating your ads, you should be guided by your audience data, social style guide and social listening tools. You should also craft multiple versions of the same ad to avoid creative fatigue. Best practices include designing 3-5 creative options for your ad visuals and writing multiple captions for each. Asking questions in the copy is also a good way to help boost engagement on the ad. 

It’s also important to incorporate different types of ad formats to test what performs best. This includes carousels, stories, video, ect. When doing this it’s important to make sure your creative is within specs and renders properly across all ad formats. 

Lastly, make sure your ad creative and copy are both on-brand and compliment whatever organic content you’re posting at the same time. Also ask for feedback to identify which creative assets are your best. 

Step 3: Build Ad Sets 

To get started on this step, build target audiences and upload your creative assets to your chosen social platforms. 

When building your target audiences you want to create multiple segments such as prospective, lookalike, retargeting, ABM, etc. Here are a few tips for building multiple segments: 

  • To build an audience of prospective customers, use platform offerings. 
  • For lookalike audiences, utilize your company’s first part data. 
  • Create retargeting audiences from your site tracking pixels. 
  • Use platform target parameters to suppress and exclude those you don’t want to reach.

Once you’ve completed these steps be sure to take advantage of custom tracking links to collect data and measure your success. You want to be granular but don’t go too narrow with your targeting.  

You should also be sure to install tracking links and that your conversion tracking pixels are placed correctly on your site. Utilize custom tracking links to collect your data and ultimately measure your success. 

Lastly, bid strategically. Implement automated rules and cost/bid caps to avoid high ad costs. Since there are so many brands running ads during the holiday season, it can be easy for costs to get high. 

Step 4: Launch Campaign

Once you’ve launched your campaign, A/B testing is essential. Learn what resonates better with your audiences and monitor your progress frequently. We recommend running ads for about 1-2 weeks before making any changes. 

Continue to go back and review your goals and KPIs when measuring your success. If there are ads you notice aren’t performing as well, pause them and don’t be afraid to increase spend on the ones that are. 

More from Onimod Global 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

3 Tips for Facebook Video Success

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As most are aware, video is the best performing content type across all platforms. But each platform comes with its own set of unique strategies and tactics to succeed. On Facebook in particular, creators usually find that the community connects with you on a deeper level, through finding similar interests and passions. Engagement is generally higher and more meaningful than other channels. 

Recently, Facebook released three best practice tips when it comes to creating video content that will be the most successful on their platform. 

1. Include a 3-5 second trailer. 

Capturing users’ attention is one of the most crucial aspects of content. When it comes to video, the first 3-10 seconds of the video are extremely critical. You want to make these moments visually interesting because users will make a split second decision around what they want to engage with and spend the time watching. Including a 3-5 second trailer at the beginning of the video can help captivate and hold your audience. 

Facebook advises to take advantage of Creator Studio to see where your viewers are dropping off. To do this open up Video Details by clicking on your video in the Content Library of Creator Studio. Then check the Audience Retention curve and uncheck “only include views over 15 seconds” to see where people are dropping off in the first few seconds of your video. They also recommend to look at your retention curve often and work to improve it over time. This will ultimately help increase your reach on Facebook. 

2. Edit your videos with a 4:5 aspect ratio. 

It’s essential to optimize the video for whatever platform you’re sharing it on. Today, most people are watching video on mobile in vertical orientation, rather than turning their phone to landscape. This is why you want to frame your visual story and build for vertical format. Edit your videos using a 4:5 aspect ratio, as this seems to work best for videos on Facebook. 

3. Engage back with your community. 

Engaging with your viewers is just as important as creating the content itself. Joining in on the conversation in your comment section of your posts creates a good relationship with your audience and helps maximize your reach. Leaving long-form comments, like sharing special insights or answering questions can also help to spark even more engagement on your posts. 

Facebook also shared 5 things to keep in mind when creating videos: 

  • Engaging: You want to create videos that spark meaningful interactions and authentic shares. 
  • Original: You don’t want to create videos that are clickbait or shared from a third party.
  • Relevant: Capture people’s attention with things that are relevant to their interests. 
  • Consistent: Create videos that people will want to seek out and return to regularly. 
  • Retentive: You can drive longer views by creating high quality videos and are 3+ minutes long. 

Final Thoughts 

Facebook offers a unique combination of storytelling tools that makes it one of the best places to share things about your brand and grow your audience. That, combined with video content, makes Facebook one of the best places for social media marketing. Here we’ve discussed best practices for creating videos on Facebook, but there are a number of other factors that go into being successful when it comes to social media marketing. 

At Onimod Global, we’re experts in all areas of digital marketing. If you need additional assistance in the Facebook ad space, or any area of digital marketing, we can help. Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. 

Your Guide to Instagram’s Newest Feature, Guides

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Back in May of this year Instagram had rolled out a new “Guides” feature to only a select few influencers. This week they have now made this available to all users, giving everyone a new way to share themed content on their Instagram profile. 

Here’s everything you need to know. 

What are Instagram Guides? 

At its release, Instagram explained they wanted to offer a way for users to “easily discover recommendations, tips and other content” from their favorite creators, public figures, organizations and publishers. They in turn launched Guides, which allowed creators to share more long-form content in a dedicated tab on their user profiles. Guides make it easier for users to follow a curated flow of posts with commentary – which makes it great for almost “blog-like” content that incorporates text and visuals. See below:

Image Source: Instagram

Where Can I Find Instagram Guides? 

To access an Instagram Guide, visit a creator’s profile and you’ll find an icon resembling a newspaper next to the standard posts icon. 

Image from: Later

Users will also be able to share Guides via Stories and Direct Messages, expanding their possible reach even further. Guides will also be available in users’ Explore tab. 

How Do I Create a Guide? 

To create a Guide on your Instagram profile:

    • Head to your Instagram profile and tap on the ‘+’ icon at the top left of screen
    • From the ‘Create’ menu, select ‘Guide’
    • You then select which type of Guide you want to create – ‘Places’, ‘Products’ or ‘Posts’
    • From there, you select the posts you want to add to your Guide (either yours or content from other users) and put them into your collection
    • You can then add a title and description, and change the cover image if you wish

Additional Updates 

Instagram announced another new update that will be very valuable for brands. Before, users were only able to search names, usernames, hashtags and locations. With today’s changes, users will now be able to search keywords to find content relevant to their interests, mirroring a standard search engine. 

Instagram says their ultimate goal is to allow users to continuously browse without having to leave the app. 

Final Thoughts 

This feature can be easily utilized for brands across all industries. If you already create a blog for your website, you can easily re-curate that content and optimize it for Instagram Guides. Not only will this expand your reach, but it will also increase your content engagement due to the face that users no longer have to leave the app to read your blog. Instagram Guides bring a whole new way to curate and consume content, which opens up huge opportunities for e-commerce, story-telling, educating and just creating brand awareness in general. 

More from Onimod Global 

We’re experts in everything from social media marketing and content creation, to SEM and SEO. If you need assistance in any area of digital marketing, we’re here for you. 

Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.

Facebook Ad Tips to Maximize Your Performance This Holiday Season

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The 2020 holiday season is here and for many it can’t be business as usual. Businesses must continue to shift and adapt to everything going on and with many distractions, capturing consumers’ attention is more difficult than ever. If you’ve yet to establish a strong online presence throughout the pandemic, you’ll need to start thinking of ways to create a strong brand awareness and stand out among competitors. 

For many, Facebook is a critical marketing platform, especially around the holiday season. The platform recently gave out their top 5 tips for creating ads to maximize your performance while increasing your brand awareness. 

1. Create a voice for your brand. 

Giving your brand a unique voice is the best way to personify your brand. You want to tailor this voice to align with both your business purposes and their target audience. Many brands find success on social media by adopting a certain persona. Facebook suggests this may be key, in addition to ensuring consistency in your tone. 

2. Position your products. 

Visual elements are crucial on all social media platforms when it comes to marketing. Presenting your offerings up front is also a critical part of the process. Display your products up front and center so your audience knows what you’re advertising and why. You can also include your brand message so users can start to associate it with your products. Facebook has also mentioned that putting your brand messaging within the first few seconds of a video ad is key to effectively building association. 

3. Say it with words. 

While visuals are important, you can’t rely on them alone when marketing. Incorporate value propositions into your ads that feature your products or services, explaining why the user should purchase them, what makes them unique from others and what benefits they’ll get from them. You can also start weaving your brand’s messaging or slogan into your ad copy. 

4. Use branded packaging. 

You can easily take your brand to the next level by creating unique packaging that encompasses your company’s look and feel. This also helps enhance the customer experience, making it almost seem like a gift, which is especially nice during the holiday season. Personalized touches are also a great addition to brand packaging. It can be as simple as a handwritten note, but it shows you care about your customers and create a better, more loyal relationship with them. 

5. Spend strategically. 

Brand awareness is a difficult goal to track and measure. Facebook offers marketing solutions that help with quantifying your efforts. For example, you can run retargeting campaigns to reach audiences who already know about your brand, as well as advertise to people who have already visited your website, app, store or Facebook page, or advertise specifically to people who have already made a purchase. 

Final Thoughts

Even though there is a lot going on in the world currently, brands still have to think about their holiday marketing efforts. If you’re struggling knowing how to get going, these tips are a great place to start. If you need additional assistance in the Facebook ad space, or any area of digital marketing, we can help. At Onimod Global we’re experts in all areas of social media and digital marketing. Learn more about who we are and what we do, and contact us here today. 

We also release the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.

Influencer Marketing Tips: Finding the Right Influencers for Your Brand

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Influencer marketing allows brands to easily break into the consumers’ circle of trust in a way that feels more organic and welcomed. It’s relevant, reliable and relatable, making it an extremely effective marketing tool for brands. 

Are you looking into influencer marketing but not sure where to start? Here are our top tips to help guide your search and create a successful campaign. 

1. Know the type of influencer campaign you’re going to run. 

As you begin mapping out your marketing plan, identifying the specific type of influencer campaign you want to run is crucial. This will in turn help you connect with the best influencer and help you reach your campaign goals. Different types of influencer campaigns include: 

  • Gifting. This entails giving the influencer free products in exchange for shoutouts, mentions, posts, etc.
  • Guest posting. The influencer would get to create a post for you that you would then be shared directly on your page.   
  • Sponsored content. You would pay the influencer to share your content or create content that is somehow tied to your brand. 
  • Contests/Giveaways. Using contests as an incentive to get influencers to mention your product, brand or share your content. 
  • Takeover. You would be allowing the influencer to completely take over your social media page for a set amount of time. 
  • Affiliates. Share affiliate codes with influencers so they can earn money each time a user comes through their funnel and purchases from your brand.
  • Discount codes. Allowing influencers to give discount codes for your offerings to their own followers. 
  • Brand ambassadors. Partnering with an influencer who would then regularly promote your brand in exchange for discounts, deals and additional perks from you. 

2. Research influencers relevant to your niche. 

A great place to start finding influencers is by looking at famous, well-known or respected figures in your industry. This will not only increase the reach of your message and build more brand awareness, but drastically enhance your authority within the industry as well. While this can be difficult for smaller brands, it’s not impossible. You just have to prove why you stand out from others in your industry and get in contact with the proper people. 

To support this strategy, set up Google alerts for industry terms to see who is regularly writing content about important topics in your industry. You can also try browsing forums to see who might be regularly answering questions related to your industry. 

3. Research competitors’ influencers. 

It’s not uncommon for influencers to work with two competing brands, as long as both brands agree to it. So, to find influencers that are likely to work with your brand, look for those who are already working with brands like yours. Another benefit of this is that since they already create content or write about others in your industry, you won’t have to do much educating on your niche. 

Finding these influencers should be fairly easy. You can browse industry-related hashtags on different social platforms to see who is already sharing content and engaging with competitors. You can also look through competitors’ pages to see if there are any influencers working with them that look like they would be a good fit for you as well. 

4. Find influencers that already share your audience. 

It’s not necessary for an influencer to be directly tied to your industry to be effective. Influencers who share your audience can provide just as much value. Actually, working with influencers in an industry that overlaps or is complimentary to your own can help you extend your reach even further. It also connects you to your audience in a space that isn’t already saturated with messages from your competitors. 

To find these influencers start by doing a target audience analysis. This will help you to fully understand your ideal audience, their needs, interests and other sites they frequent. This can help you to then identify other non-industry-related influencers that your audience already follows. 

5. Audit potential influencers’ following, reach and engagement metrics. 

Once you’ve identified a few different influencers you’re considering, start evaluating their authority. Or in other words, determine if they have a large enough reach to help you accomplish your campaign goals. An influencer analysis consists of looking at factors such as: 

  • Number of followers 
  • Engagement rate of their followers 
  • Type of regular content 
  • Quality of content 
  • The depth of niche coverage 

Final Thoughts 

A strategically planned influencer marketing campaign that leverages the influencers most relevant to your goals, audience and niche can lead to big results for your campaign and brand as a whole. 

Onimod Global releases the latest digital marketing news and essential marketing tips every Tuesday and Thursday! To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here. To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here.

4 Ways to Use LinkedIn Stories to Promote Your Brand

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LinkedIn has recently rolled out their own stories feature, following Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. For many, Stories are now preferred over standard feed posts when it comes to consuming content, meaning LinkedIn Stories may be a great new way to reach your audience, especially for B2B companies. 

For marketers looking to utilize this new feature to promote your brand, here are 4 of the best ways to do so. 

1. Share Professional Tips 

Majority of LinkedIn users use the platform in a professional manner. Looking for networking connections, industry news, trends, ect. The goal of LinkedIn Stories is to build a strong and professional network for your brand. Sharing professional tips is one of the most effective ways to do this. 

For a product-based company, you can share product development, show how to use your products, answer questions, etc. If you have a new product, making your audience feel like they’re a part of the process, creating a connection and making it more likely they’ll purchase the product when it’s released. 

For a service-based company, you can show how you solve your audiences’ pain points. An innovative way to do this is my holding an “Ask Me Anything” session on LinkedIn Stories. Users can send in their questions about your services. It’s easy to answer in real time and you can describe your services in greater detail than if it were a standard social media interaction. This is a great way to build a relationship with your audience members and demonstrate your expertise.

2. Highlight Achievements 

It’s encouraged to share awards and accolades on LinkedIn, this can be both personal or company-wide. For example, if a member of your staff gets a promotion, wins an award or gets an article published, you can share that information on your company LinkedIn story. Similarly if your company wins an award, won a high-profile partnership, released a new product/service, etc. you can share that as well. Be sure to include a call-to-action to learn more either online or offline so your audience can view your wins. 

3. Go Behind the Scenes 

Everyone loves to feel like they’re getting a special peek at something, no matter what it is. This also allows you to show off a more casual side of yourself and your company. You can show your or other team member’s work environment or team members interacting, create a “day-in-the-life” series, share different tools or apps you use to boost productivity, ect. This is just an additional way to allow your audience to feel more connected with you, creating a better relationship and ultimately, solidifying loyalty. 

4. Share Customer Testimonials and Stories

When it comes down to it, people trust people over brands. And today, online reviews have a great impact on potential customers. If you receive a great customer review, take advantage of it and share it on other platforms. If it mentions a specific team member you can also use it to give them a shoutout of praise on LinkedIn that they could potentially share on their personal profile. Even better, if a customer is willing, they can tell a personal story of how your product, service or company in general helped them. This can ultimately help make your brand feel more relatable. 

Final Thoughts 

LinkedIn Stories really just presents a new way to reach your audience. Most social media users are looking for quick information and in a less formalized form. Because this feature is still fairly new, this is a great opportunity to jump ahead of your competition and get out in front of your target audience before them. 

More from Onimod Global

If you need assistance with social media marketing, we can help. We’re experts in everything from SEO and SEM to social media marketing and website development.   To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here. To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.  

7 Social Media Graphic Design Tips

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No matter what you’re sharing on social media, it always performs best when paired with striking visuals. So here are some social media design tip best practices to help your content stand out amongst the crowd. 

1. Determine Your Goal 

Usually, the main goal when using social media is to grab user’s attention and get them to engage in some way. No piece of content will ever cater to all social media users, so the most important factor is figuring out what works for your audience. Here are some questions to get you started when determining the goal of your social media graphic: 

  • Who is my target audience? 
  • Which platforms are they using the most?
  • Which devices are they on most frequently? 
  • What is the message I want to spread?
  • What emotion am I trying to invoke? 
  • What action do I want my audience to take after seeing this graphic? 

2. Be Consistent 

You want to maintain consistency across all design elements and branded materials so that your target audience can clearly recognize who it’s coming from. Whatever graphics you create and share should essentially be an extension of the same brand they see on your website. Be sure to incorporate your brand’s colors and fonts into your designs and avoid anything content that doesn’t accurately reflect your brand. 

3. Tell Your Message Visually 

Majority of people scroll through social media slightly distracted and only for a few minutes at a time. Try to use visuals with minimal text to capture attention and get your message across as quickly as possible. Statistics have shown that people can recall information about 55% more efficiently when it’s paired with a relevant graphic. That’s why you want to choose visuals that evoke a specific emotion you want your audience to feel. Possibly a visual representation of a pain point you know your target audience is experiencing, or that pain point being solved or relieved. 

4. Avoid Color Discord 

Make sure you’re choosing colors that complement each other, avoiding color discord. Combine contrasting colors to make your graphic a scroll-stopper. The most eye-catching color combinations are those that oppose each other on the color wheel. You also want to avoid using colors that might clash with your own branding, as well as the branding of the social platform you’re using. For example, Facebook’s signature blue. When you’re already competing for attention with the color schemes of other ads, you don’t want to compete with the colors of the site itself. 

5. Establish a Visual Hierarchy 

It’s important to establish some sort of visual hierarchy throughout your design. A visual hierarchy is the use of size and color to emphasize one item over another to draw the viewer’s eye to a certain item above others. Basically, you want to give visual clues to what’s most important in the graphic. Emphasize your message by focusing on the most significant phrases. The title text should have the largest font size, then subtitles, body copy and so on. You should also highlight any sort of CTA that might be included as well. 

6. Be Sure to Use Correct Sizing 

Every social platform requires images with different sizes, specifications and image types. When creating your design you need to identify which platform(s) you’ll be sharing it on. You will most likely have to resize the graphic to fit the specific dimensions of every platform you’re planning on sharing it. This can seem like a tedious task, but this is important for optimization and to ensure important elements of your graphic aren’t cropped or distorted. 

7. Keep it Simple 

Because social gives designers a much smaller canvas to work with, overcrowding can happen fast. You want to avoid overcrowding because it hinders user experience and can make it difficult to get your message across. You can avoid this by: 

  • Using large illustrations 
  • Limiting typeface to 2 fonts 
  • Sticking with 2-3 colors 
  • Utilizing white space to contrast the main bold, colorful element 

More from Onimod Global 

Needing assistance with graphic design, branding or social media? We offer high-end design and branding for your business.

Visual identity and marketing materials are our specialty. Bring an in-house graphic design team to your business with Onimod Global. Learn more about who we are or contact us to bring your digital marketing strategy to the next level today. 

The Best Times to Post on Social Media for Your Business

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As a business, the goal of posting on social media is to generate brand awareness, engagement and drive more traffic to your website. To optimize your social media marketing strategy, the times you post on social media does matter. A well-timed post can lead to greater reach, more likes, comments, shares, etc. It is important to note that optimal times do vary based on industry and user trends. But in general, there are times of the day users are more engaged than others. We’ve put together a guide for the best times to post on each social media platform, making it easier to find your sweet spot for optimal performance in your specific industry. 

Facebook: 

Reaching people on Facebook isn’t as easy as it once was. Organic traffic has been on the decline over the last few years due to it becoming mostly a pay per click platform. That doesn’t mean it should be ignored, however, as there is still massive opportunity. 

During the week, the best time to post on your business page is between 1pm and 4pm. This is likely because it’s the time of day when users have some downtime at work are browning their desktop or scrolling through their phone screens. 

The best days of the week to post on Facebook are Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Weekends in general show the highest levels of engagement. And Sunday at 3pm is the single best time to post on Facebook. 

Twitter:

With Twitter, timing is everything. The lifespan of a tweet is only 18 minutes so you only have a short period of time to make sure you’re reaching the right people. 

The best time to tweet has shown to be between 12 and 1 pm. Workdays seem to drive the highest engagement, with Wednesday being the single best day. Tweeting during lunch every week day can help increase your general social media engagement. Additionally, the weekends have shown to be the worst days of the week to tweet, driving the lowest engagement. 

Instagram: 

Instagram has recently changed its algorithm for how the platform ranks posts on users’ feeds. In general, it has made driving traffic and engagement difficult for pages with small follower numbers. It favors “recency,” but does not use chronological order. It shows users posts they believe they will be more likely to engage with. This makes it even more important to post during the time your followers are most engaged. 

If you’re marketing or selling products, the best time to post on Instagram is 11am to 1pm during the week or evenings from 7pm to 9pm. Because Instagram is favored on mobile, most users tend to avoid it during the work day. When it comes to days, the best performing are Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, with Wednesdays driving the highest levels of engagement. But the single best time to post on Instagram has shown to be Saturdays at 5 pm. Overall, Sundays are the worst days to post. 

LinkedIn: 

LinkedIn’s algorithm is very different from all other social media platforms. Oftentimes, it will show posts from weeks ago. This makes it even more important to create compelling content that will stand out amongst the crowd. 

Considering most LinkedIn users are business professionals, the best times to post are between 10am and 11am on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Weekends and after office hours tend to be the worst times to post. 

Final Thoughts

It’s important to note that this is all a general guide. To be successful on social you really need to know your own audience. Consider their age, their location, their challenges, pain points, etc. It’s also essential to continue to test and optimize. You never want to get complacent because things are constantly changing, especially when it comes to social media. 

If you need assistance with social media marketing, we can help. We’re experts in everything from SEO and SEM to social media marketing and website development.   To find out more about who we are and what we do, click here. To catch up on the top digital marketing news and trends, click here.  

 

Why Live Video Should Be a Part of Your Digital Marketing Strategy

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Finding new tactics to add into your marketing mix can be tough. It can be even harder to stand out  when it seems like all companies are using the same tools and strategies.  

One of the best ways to differentiate yourself from the competition is by using newer platforms that not everyone has transitioned to yet. While live video is now used by many big brands, it hasn’t made its way to everyone yet, especially small businesses. 

Videos in general generate the most traffic and engagement of all types of content. Live video content quickly gained traction and data showed that people were spending 3x longer watching live video compared to pre-recorded content. 

If you haven’t already added live video into your marketing mix, it’s the perfect way to start stepping up your social game. 

Why You Should Start Going Live  

1. Increased Engagement 

A Vimeo study found that 80% of consumers would rather watch a livestream about a product than read content marketing posts. Not only do more people prefer live video, but it also adds two elements that pre-recorded videos don’t have: FOMO and real time audience interaction. People hate feeling like they’re missing out on something. It’s even better when they can get their comments and questions read in real time and hear the person respond. It makes users feel more included, increasing engagement significantly. 

2. More Qualified Leads 

Not only do more people engage on live video, they also convert more. The same Vimeo study found that 67% of the livestream audience made a purchase following the session. That is a huge conversion rate in comparison to other content traffic. 

3. Better Authenticity 

With a live video there’s no cuts or retakes. It shows people’s and brand’s most authentic selves, which resonates best with consumers today. This builds more trust and long-term relationships among you and your audience. 

Where to Go Live

1. Instagram

Instagram holds to be one of the best places to go live. There are over 100 million daily users, it’s simple to navigate and it notifies your followers when you go live. Lives can last up to an hour and you can save them on your story for people to view later. 

2. Facebook 

Facebook is also one of the most popular platforms to go live on. Facebook Live is good for face-to-camera videos, as well as live-action shots from events. Broadcasts can last up 

to four hours and in addition to the usual video analytics, you’ll also be able to see the number of live viewers, people reached, reactions, comments and shares. It also notifies your audience when the stream begins and at the end of the broadcast, the video is added to your profile or Facebook page. 

3. TikTok

This is one of the newest platforms, but the fastest growing, with over 800 million active users. If you have a younger audience, this is the perfect place to go live. Live video streaming allows TikTokers to connect with their followers in real-time using comments. It can also help you monetize your account if your live stream audience sends you virtual “gifts.”  The best part about live videos is that you can cover a lot of content through them since TikTok hasn’t yet restricted their duration.

What to Share on Live 

1. Behind the Scenes

No matter the product, service, industry, etc. consumers love seeing how things are created. Live videos give consumers the opportunity to get sneak peeks of how their favorite things come to life, which can help solidifying sales and loyalty. 

2. Q&A’s 

Question-and-answer formats are great for driving high levels of traffic and engagement. If you invite high-profile guests onto your live streaming shows, you can receive lots of interaction from fans. People love getting special insights and tips from influencer and industry leaders. 

3. Events 

Like we said before, people love to feel included. Live streaming events can let people that couldn’t attend in person, feel like they’re still a part of it. This can also create a lot of excitement around the event as well. 

4. Announcements and Promotions

Live video really helps people feel like there is a VIP experience as they got to see something live on video before it hits the “shelves.” Consider teasing whatever new thing is happening in your business as a live stream using exclusive words to describe the sessions ahead of time to drive traffic. Create excitement around call-to-action like asking for feedback or sending a limited amount of product for people to test out. By doing so you create an eager group of people ready to buy new stuff you teased out to them.

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